Melt Yourself Down

An intense brew of jazz, punk, and African elements, Melt Yourself Down is a sextet featuring saxophonists Pete Wareham and Shabaka Hutchings, drummer Tom Skinner, bassist Ruth Goller, vocalist Kushal Gaya, and percussionist Satin Singh. The group's sound reflects the members' pedigrees: Wareham and Goller played in the acclaimed jazz outfit Acoustic Ladyland, Skinner and Hutchings also perform with the similarly lauded Sons of Kemet, and Gaya hails from the avant-garde combo Zun Zun Egui. Melt Yourself Down began when Wareham wanted to make "Nubian-inspired party punk music" and contacted his friends and former bandmembers. After writing the songs that would become their first album, the band headed to the Lightship95 studio with producer Leafcutter John. Melt Yourself Down released a pair of singles, Fix My Life/We Are Enough and Release!, before issuing their self-titled full-length in June 2013.